Bob Rogers wrote:
| Cynthia Cathcart wrote:
| While we're talking about reels, and since there are a good smattering
| of fiddlers here, I will hazard another question: how fast are they
| usually played for dancers? One organization here in the States
| advertises the actual tempo of reels at 130-140 per half note/minim.
| ...
| Well, in the preface to Skinner's _Harp and Claymore_, the editor, Gavin
| Greig, M.A., wrote regarding Strathspeys and reels,
|
| The tempo of the former is 1/2 note = 94 and the latter 1/2 note = 126.
| This represents 20 seconds for the Strathspey, and 15 for the Reel.
| These are the rates given by Mr. Skinner, and coincide with those given
| by G.F Graham. Mr. John Glenn makes the Strathspey somewhat slower.
|
| For listening? My wife was practicing some Mozart at a tempo 1/2 note =
| 152, which is really fast. I was listening to a field recording of an
| American Celtic fiddler (on headphones in the next room), and his
| tempo exactly matched her metronome. It sounded very fast, but not
| really hurried or rushed.
In general, the proper speed is very different for different kinds of
dancing, and there's usually at least a 10% variation on either side
of the average speed.
For some years, my wife and I have been playing for a rapper sword
team. They dance mostly to jigs. I've taken an electronic metronome
along to a number of morris/sword events, and the typical rapper team
dances at about 160. Their footwork gets really clunky and tiring if
the tempo is less than about 150.
Now, many musicians' reaction to this is 160? Awk!!! But actually,
a jig at 160 and a reel at 120 are the same speed, 8 notes per
second. 120 is about the average speed for New England contras (which
we also play a lot). So anyone who plays reels for contras can play a
jig at 160.
I also play for a lot of Scottish (RSCDS) dances, and there the usual
speed for reels and jigs is around 112. With the usual 10% variance,
of course, depending on the dance and the tunes. It can be funny to
watch contra musicians trying to hold down the tempo to 112. But the
dancers will usually give you a lot of too fast feedback when the
tempo creeps up.
One thing that I like to point out to newcomers to this and other
kinds of dance is that there's an interesting pattern to the speed:
When playing for novices, you will need to play a bit slowly at
first, and speed up as they learn the dances. But when playing for a
crowd of experienced dancers, they will want you to slow down. This
is, contrary to common opinion, not an age-related thing. The better
dancers have learned fancy things that they like to do with the
steps, and they can't do them at a fast tempo. For an intermediate
crowd, a fast tempo works, because they mostly don't know the fancy
things, and they also don't have the balance that slower dancing
requires. But the more advanced dancers have the steps and the
balance, and they'll like the music slower so they can do things with
the dance.
A while ago I noticed that over the weekend I'd played Stan Chapman's
jig at 112 for a Scottish dance, at 120 for a contra, and at 160 for
a rapper dance. The style you need for all of these is rather
different, of course, but the tune works for all of them.
I've also played for a lot of Irish step dancers in the past, and
they have at least 6 distinct jigs, each with a different rhythm and
tempo. Then there's Morris dancing, with its deliberate tempos of
around 80 or 90. One of my favorite ways of educating musicians who
are impressed by fast and loud is to get them to try playing along
with Morris dancers. This is a crowd that is *not* impressed by fast
and loud. Too fast is simply wrong. And you need to play loud enough
to be heard, but not so loud that you drown the calls. And you have
to learn a lot of style. And, of course, you need to learn the proper
irreverent, nonchalant attitude towards it all.
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